zaire
1 Americannoun
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zaire
plural
noun
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Republic of Zaire, a former name of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
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official name within the Democratic Republic of the Congo of the Congo River (the term Congo River is more widely used elsewhere).
noun
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the former name (1971–97) of the Democratic Republic of Congo
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(formerly) the Zaïrian name (1971–97) for the (River) Congo
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
A vessel took us to Cayenne, where we secured a passage on board one of the steamers of the French Transatlantic Aspinwall line, the Ville de St. Na- zaire, which conveyed us to Europe.
From The Survivors of the Chancellor by Jules Verne
But because Ebola strains like the Zaire variant were so lethal, they quickly ran out of new people to infect before they could move on to another area.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 6, 2026
This is because it uses the same platform as the only officially licenced Ebola vaccine Ervebo, which targets a different strain called Zaire.
From Barron's ● Jul. 30, 2026
Zaire, as DR Congo was then known, lost all three games - including 9-0 against Yugoslavia.
From BBC ● Jun. 28, 2026
Vaccines targeting Zaire ebolavirus have proven highly effective, and two antiviral treatments have reduced mortality rates from 50% to 35%.
From Science Daily ● Jun. 22, 2026
I pretended not to notice and went on to witchcraft, told him the Zaire leopard story.
From "The Subtle Knife" by Philip Pullman
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The limited testing that was available in the province was testing for the Zaïre strain and not coming up positive.
From BBC ● May 19, 2026
DR Congo - which is currently facing its 17th outbreak of Ebola - is more familiar with the Zaïre species.
From BBC ● May 19, 2026
THE BUILDUP: Foreman and Ali spent much of the middle of 1974 training in Zaïre, getting acclimated to its tropical climate.
From Washington Times ● Jun. 4, 2016
After a visit by Mobutu, Hassan announced that he would dispatch a contingent to Zaïre that would be "placed at the disposal of the Organization of African Unity along with other African forces."
From Time Magazine Archive
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I thought that scene with Zaïre and her brother Néréstan very fine, and it suited me.
From My Double Life The Memoirs of Sarah Bernhardt by Sarah Bernhardt
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.